Mid-winter Recs & Links
to help you be where you are (or escape for a spell)
I’m trying to slow down my publishing schedule a wee bit, as a way to take my own advice. Also, as a way to resist the “you must grow constantly and post content constantly” rhetoric heaped on writers, esp on substack. I can’t keep up with the many wonderful newsletters I follow, so I imagine you maybe can’t either? I hope you enjoy what I’ve been gathering here for you—there’s a mail art project, lots of recs, and, at the end, our Do Nothing accountability thread. I’d love to hear about your “nothings”! ❄️
LISTEN / MEDITATE
I loved Bill Hader’s interview on 10% happier: Favorite line: “All those hippie dudes were right and that blows”—I’m also simply grateful that he shares his experiences with anxiety in a way that normalizes it and helps me to laugh about it.
Listen to Major Jackson introduce Padraig O’Tuama’s poem, “The Lifeline” on The Slowdown Show: Jackson says, “When natural disaster occurs, when catastrophe falls upon us, we humans lean into life. We need the counterbalancing force of creation and renewal to tilt the world back toward meaning and light.”
Angel Kyodo Williams’ On Being interview (from 2018): “[Love] is developing our own capacity for spaciousness within ourselves to allow others to be as they are — that that is love. And that doesn’t mean that we don’t have hopes or wishes that things are changed or shifted, but that to come from a place of love is to be in acceptance of what is, even in the face of moving it towards something that is more whole, more just, more spacious for all of us. Its bigness. Its allowance. Its flexibility.”
I’ve been cobbling together this meditation playlist; maybe you’ll find one here that works for you? (I’d love it if you want to share any others that you love in the comments…)
READ / MAKE
This Maya Angelou excerpt from the Madwomen in the Attic newsletter: “Writing is a part of my life; cooking is a part of my life. Making love is a part of my life; walking down the street is a part of it. Writing demands more time, but it takes from all of these other activities. They all feed into the writing. I think it’s dangerous to concern oneself too damned much with ‘being an artist.’ It’s more important to get the work done. You don’t have to concern yourself with it, just get it done. The pondering pose—the back of the hand glued against the forehead—is baloney. People spend more time posing than getting the work done. The work is all there is. And when it’s done, then you can laugh, have a pot of beans, stroke some child’s head, or skip down the street.” –Maya Angelou, in an interview with Claudia Tate, from Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate (Haymarket Books, reprint edition, 2023).
This article on artist Jessie Homer French in the NYT makes me want to do a deep dive into her art: ““I’m not sure that financial success is good for a painter. It might be good for somebody who’s making something really complicated, like balloon dogs,” she says, winkingly, referring to the expensively produced sculptures of Jeff Koons. “But for a regular ordinary painter who hangs out in her garage, and desperately tries to make something that she likes, I don’t know if a lot of success would be good for them.” She adds, “It won’t change me at all.” (I’m grateful that her daughter, Agatha French, is my writer friend and shared this on IG. I would have missed it otherwise. Also, you should read this brilliant piece by Agatha on miscarriage that I still think about regularly).
Loved this substack post by Kathryn Barbash on Mindful Mom in the Mud: “Tired Parents Can’t Meditate on a Mountaintop”
The Dear Friend Mail Art project has given me so much joy over the last few weeks. Created by my dear friend, novelist & extraordinary human, Joanne Proulx, and her dear friend, artist, Heidi Conrod. Follow them on IG @dearfriend_mailart2024.
Just got my first batch of postcards—you, too, can have these arrive in your mailbox in the actual world & be part of this project & art exhibit!
WATCH
I’ve been slowly drawing out my watching of the show Better Things because I love it so much. I finally watched the season finale. Here’s the trailer for season one. Damn, this show is brilliant and heart-filled and gave me a such a great model of what it is to be a middle-aged woman in our culture and be a full human being. Thank you to my friend, Shannon, for being on me to watch this for years.
Does anyone else struggle to find good movies to watch that you don’t have to buy even though you subscribe to like four streaming services? Anyone else also start watching around 9:30 pm when you look like this Robin Williams meme and then spend 10 minutes scanning what you could watch then watch for 10 minutes before you have to go to bed?
But really, how do you find good things watch? Anyone else use Letterboxd? My younger friend told me about it, but I’m not sure yet how to use it right (?) or how much it will help give me ideas for good films…HALP.
GO
Kelly Sather is coming to Pittsburgh to read & I’ll be in conversation with her & on livestream at White Whale Bookstore on Valentine’s Day! Feb 14th at 7 pm. (register at the link) Her book, Small in Real Life, is stunning and has made me lose sleep multiple times now because I get lost in the stories. Deesha Philyaw chose it to win the Drue Heinz Literature Prize from University of Pittsburgh Press & said of it, “The heart of this brilliant collection is chaos—the way the universe is chaotic, unpredictable, and simply dazzling.”
DO NOTHING THREAD
What “nothing” did you do? What have you done or will you do today or this week in order to open up time and space and connect with yourself, your actual physical environment, and/or others in real life?
Leave a comment about your brief report from the field…
I took a little time this morning to draw a picture and scribble some words on one of the Dear Friend Mail art project postcards...it felt deeply restorative. Such a simple act— but there is something about drawing & writing in this collaborative way on a postcard that came to me through the mail that made me feel like myself again.
A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the ScreenZen app and I’ve found my screen time has dropped dramatically. Also I’m less likely to find myself going into apps on my phone without even really thinking about it and my brain is feeling a bit less cluttered too.